LSAT 89, Logical Reasoning II, Q9, LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Many airlines offer, for a fee, to “offset” the carbon emissions…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle

CONCLUSION: The emission offset schemes offered by airlines are almost entirely ineffective.

REASONING: The fees are usually invested into projects that reduce carbon emissions, but in most cases those projects would have continued even without that investment.

ANALYSIS: The author is saying that the investment doesn’t actually change the result in most cases – the projects would occur with or without the investment. Because of this, they say the offset schemes are ineffective.

The principle that justifies this will probably say something like “an initiative is ineffective if the result doesn’t change as a result of that initiative”. We can say this because the author is concluding that it is ineffective based on the lack of changed outcome.

___________

1. This would tell us that the offset schemes don’t make flying moral. But it doesn’t mean that the schemes are ineffective.
2. CORRECT. Based on this, we can say that the scheme is not effective. The outcome would have been the same with or without the scheme, so the scheme did not cause the outcome.
3. This tells us that if the airlines profit, then they shouldn’t be praised. But that doesn’t lead to our conclusion.
4. The author isn’t saying that these measures shouldn’t be taken. They’re saying that they’re ineffective. This principle doesn’t help us get to our conclusion.
5. We don’t know if the projects are tackling the largest source, so we can’t use this principle.

Recap: The question begins with “Many airlines offer, for a fee, to “offset” the carbon emissions”. It is a Principle question. Learn how to master LSAT Principle questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.

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